Oregon St. Hosts Utah

Utah (14-14, 4-8) at #6 Oregon St. (25-6, 7-2) / 5:35 PM / Goss Stadium / KEJO 1240 AM & KPOJ 620 AM

Game Notes / Gametracker / Live Stream

Oregon St. hosts Utah for the first time ever to start a Pac-12 series. Last year, the Beavers took 2 of 3 from the Utes, but it was the most competitive series of the season, with all 3 games decided by 1 run, and 2 of 3 in extra innings.

Oregon St. is coming off a 6-3 loss to conference leading Oregon, after having taken the last 2 games of their weekend series at UCLA.

Utah also won their series last weekend, taking the first 2 games from visiting Washington St. before the Cougars recovered for a 5-0 win. The Utes' bullpen will be better rested than the Beavers', as their mid-week rivalry game in Provo against the Blue Cougars of BYU was snowed out.

The Beavers enter the weekend in second place in the Pac-12, 1/2 game behind Oregon. The Ducks are visiting California this weekend. The Utes are in 10th place, but are only 5 games back in the ultra competitive conference race.

Senior LHP Matt Boyd (6-1, 1.81 ERA) will as usual get the Friday night start for Oregon St. Boyd suffered his first loss of the season last week despite giving up only 5 hits to UCLA as the Bruins got a 3-2 win when the Beavers only got 4 hits.

Sophomore RHP MItch Watrous (2-1, 3.70 ERA) is the series starting starter for Utah. Watrous scattered 12 hits and 4 walks across 8 innings in his last outing against Washington St., but allowed only 4 runs, and got the win in the Utes' 7-4 victory.

Oregon St. is happy to get Tyler Smith, who has spent the last 2 weeks recouping from a hairline fracture in his left hand, back into the starting lineup this weekend.

Tonight's lineup:

Ryan Barnes-DH

Tyler Smith-SS

Michael Conforto-LF

Dylan Davis-RF

Danny Hayes-1B

Kavin Keyes-3B

Jake Rodriguez-C

Joey Jansen-CF

Andy Peterson-2B

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com